Prosecutors Seek 18 Months for Ex-SDF Officer Who Entered Chinese Embassy in Tokyo With a Knife; Verdict Due Dec. 24
A Tokyo District Court hearing on Nov. 10 closed the trial of Kodai Murata, a former Japanese Ground Self-Defense Force officer charged over entering the grounds of the Chinese Embassy in Tokyo with a knife, with prosecutors seeking a prison term of one year and six months and the defense asking for a fine. The court set the verdict for Dec. 24.
Murata, 24, was a third lieutenant stationed at the GSDF's Ebino garrison in Miyazaki Prefecture. According to the indictment, on March 24 he climbed a barbed-wire fence into the embassy compound in Moto-Azabu, Minato Ward, carrying a kitchen knife with a blade of about 18 centimeters, and handed embassy staff a note threatening to kill Chinese diplomats. He is charged with building intrusion, intimidation and violating the firearms and swords control law.
In closing arguments, prosecutors said Murata, driven by strong resentment of China's diplomatic posture, acted in a self-righteous and self-centered way, caused great fear among embassy staff and risked serious harm to bilateral diplomatic relations. The defense argued his purpose was only to talk with the ambassador, that he had no intent to harm anyone, that the intimidation charge does not stand and that a fine is appropriate. Murata apologized again to those affected in his final statement.
At the first hearing on Oct. 1, Murata admitted the intrusion and knife-possession charges but denied intimidation. The Ground Self-Defense Force dismissed him on disciplinary grounds on Aug. 28. Prosecutors had earlier ordered a psychiatric evaluation and indicted him after he was found criminally responsible.
A spokesperson for the Chinese Embassy in Japan said on Oct. 31, after the first hearing, that a serving Self-Defense Force officer entering the embassy with a knife was an egregious incident without precedent internationally and a serious violation of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, urging Japan to punish the offender strictly under the law, investigate and rectify the problems, and give a responsible account.
(Source: Kyodo News)
Source: Kyodo News
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：中国驻日本大使馆经济商务参赞处（东京）。照片：Senkaku Islands 摄，CC BY-SA 4.0，经 Wikimedia Commons。 / Photo: The Economic and Commercial Counsellor's Office of the Chinese Embassy in Tokyo, Japan. Photo by Senkaku Islands, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
